In the dawn night with a faint moonlight.
Adeline slowly opened her eyes. She carefully lit the candle on the nightstand and got out of bed.
She left the bedroom with quiet steps so as not to wake the sleeping duke.
Adeline went down the corridor to the study and immediately opened the desk drawer.
Inside the drawer lay the unopened letter that the innkeeper had handed over.
The familiar handwriting at the bottom left of the letter paper read .
Adeline sat at the study desk and carefully began to remove the wax seal.
Adeline began to read the letter in order by the light of the candle she had brought.
[To Del.Del, why on earth did you suddenly run away? Do you know how surprised I was when I heard the news of your escape?
I have safely kept the jewels and metals I found at the place you told me about.] [You told me to wait, but seeing that there’s not a single contact, it’s hard for me to endure. You probably don’t know how worried I am, unable to sleep every night.] [I can’t take it anymore. I’m going to Horn.
I suppose I’ll be able to see you on the last day of the month when summer ends. If you don’t reply, I’ll take it as permission.
Your Hailo.]
‘The last day of the month when summer ends…..’
Adeline was shocked when she saw the writing on the last letter.
‘Wait a minute… That’s today!?’
Adeline put the letter back in the envelope, tucked it deep into the drawer, and left her seat.
‘Should I go find him as soon as it’s daylight….’
She went back to the bedroom and lay down on the bed. Seeing the duke sleeping soundly beside her, Adeline became lost in thought.
What should she do.
‘Hailo Levrance.’
Hailo was the eldest son of the Levrance Count family and her academy classmate.
The central nobles of the Soltarius Empire had to attend the Imperial First Academy unless there were special circumstances. Even the imperial family was no exception.
However, Adeline chose to attend the Second Academy in the provinces to avoid encountering the Crown Prince.
Hailo was a friend she met then.
The Levrance Count family owned numerous mining areas within the Levrance territory.
The jewels mined from these mines boasted the highest quality recognized by anyone in Soltarius.
Although it was a renowned count family with enormous wealth, Hailo, who had been frail since childhood, attended the Second Academy close to the Levrance territory.
Feeling sorry for the weak and small child, Adeline used to take care of Hailo like an elder sister.
“Adel. I’m scared, can’t you hold my hand?”
“Del. Come with me.”
Adeline and Hailo had many memories from their academy days.
It was from her academy days that Adeline began selling expensive jewelry to survive.
Hailo of the Levrance Count family, who had an eye for jewels, knew the value of jewelry better than anyone else.
The young Hailo was timid and shy, but he was incredibly stubborn when it came to jewels.
“Are you trying to scam the nobles?”
Hailo always followed behind her and helped her get the right price for her jewelry.
To Adeline, he was a jewel of a friend who paved the way for her to secure her own secret funds.
Hailo, who was smaller than Adeline, suddenly outgrew her height at some point. As if he had never been sickly, he became so robust.
Hailo, who had long been an accomplice in selling jewels, became an important courier for Adeline’s secret funds.
In fact, it was thanks to Hailo that Adeline could easily escape.
Hailo was the only one who knew that she was hiding in Horn under the name Del.
‘Hailo… why on earth are you coming to find me.’
The day he said he was coming was today, and she couldn’t even send a letter telling him not to come.
Today, she resented Hailo more than ever.
If Adeline wasn’t at the inn, he was the type to turn Horn upside down looking for her.
‘That’s just like Hailo. Of course.’
She couldn’t let Hailo find out that she was living with the duke.
She was filled with anxiety.
Unable to sleep, Adeline left the bed.
She chose to go to the inn early and send Hailo away.
[Mel. I forgot I had an appointment with a friend today. I’ll be back before it’s late, so please wait quietly at home. This time, really don’t come looking for me!]Adeline got up, left a note for the duke who would look for her, and headed to town.
Adeline didn’t know.
That the duke was not asleep when she got up at dawn and headed to the study, nor when she left the note and headed to town now.
[This is the timeline separator]‘What on earth was that letter?’
It was clear from the circumstances that Adeline had read the letter and left the house.
The duke had been bothered all day by the letter that the innkeeper had handed over when they met in town. Adeline never read that letter when the duke was awake.
After confirming through the window that Adeline had left the house, he headed to the study.
The duke decided to open the desk drawer first.
Disappointingly, as soon as he opened the first drawer, he saw an obtrusive writing.
An envelope with ‘Your Hailo’ written on it.
The duke’s heart started to pound.
After opening the letter and reading its contents, the duke was even more shocked.
‘You told me to wait, but seeing that there’s not a single contact, it’s hard for me to endure.’
‘You probably don’t know how worried I am, unable to sleep every night.’
‘I’m going to Horn.’
The duke’s mind became a jumbled mess as he read through the letter in an instant.
The letter sent by this Hailo fellow was so affectionate, as if sent to a lover.
‘Surely she’s not really lovers with this guy…?’
The duke had been quite wary even of Viscount Severus.
So much so that he thought he should tie Adeline to his side, even if it meant marriage.
But this guy who wrote the letter seemed even worse than that viscount.
‘This is the real deal. Hailo.’
The duke shoved the letter back into the drawer as if he couldn’t bear to look at it anymore.
And he slammed the drawer shut so hard it might break.
In fact, he was very confused.
‘A lover’s infidelity.’
Is this that situation he had only heard about?
While suspecting Adeline’s infidelity, on the other hand, he comforted himself that it might be his misunderstanding.
The desire to confirm with his own eyes and the fear of what if it’s really an affair welled up simultaneously.
The duke paced around the study for a long time, conflicted.
After a long time of internal struggle, he stood up as if he had made some decision.
And he left the mansion to look for Adeline, pulling his hat low over his face.
[This is the timeline separator]At that time, Adeline arrived in front of the inn.
The moment she saw the luxurious carriage stopped in front of the inn from afar, she sensed that Hailo had really come.
There was no noble who would drive such a lavish carriage in this remote town from early dawn.
As Adeline approached the inn, she saw a man leaning against the carriage.
His bright blonde hair fluttered lightly in the dawn breeze.
“Hailo!”
The man turned at Adeline’s cry.
Then he ran towards her, who was approaching from a distance, and embraced her at once.
“Adel. Do you know how worried I was?”
Hailo, who had been hugging her tightly for a while, moved away for a moment and cupped her face with his large hands.
Hailo’s blue eyes fixed on her as if to confirm that Adeline was safe.
“Hailo, I’m fine. More importantly, could you please let go of…”
“What happened? Why are you dressed like this, where on earth are you staying now?”
Hailo couldn’t close his mouth as he looked at Adeline’s shabby dress.
Wasn’t she the one who told him not to worry when she left the capital?
“No, let’s go home first. Let’s talk there…”
He didn’t give Adeline a chance to answer.
He immediately called the coachman to prepare the carriage and was giving various instructions to the servant who had come along.
Hailo looked confused, as if he couldn’t believe the current situation.
“Hailo.”
He stopped his hurried movements at Adeline’s calm voice.
“I can’t go home with you.”
“…Why not?”
He blinked his eyes as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Is the house very small? If that’s the case, it’s okay. I’ll find a nice house among the properties on sale in Horn first thing tomorrow morning…”
“No. You know better than anyone why I can’t live in the city.”
He closed his mouth for a moment.
Hailo knew better than anyone why Adeline had fled all the way to the remote Horn.
A crazy person.
It was to escape the Crown Prince of this empire who kills every fiancée that appears.
Adeline looked at Hailo and then ruffled her hair.
She had no idea where to start explaining or how.
Hailo would think she had simply fled to Horn to escape the Crown Prince.
How could she tell him? That as she had seen in the novel’s comments, she had waited for the injured Duke Torpeo to come to the villa and treated him.
And that after saving the duke, he lost his memory and they were living together.
If she told him straightforwardly like this, she might have to be dragged to the Levrance Count’s territory by Hailo’s hand.
“Well… the house I’m living in is a bit unusual.”
“…Unusual, you say?”
“Um, first of all, I have a companion I’m staying with. He’s a bit sensitive, so he won’t welcome you, Hailo.”
Adeline decided to explain in a roundabout way instead of speaking honestly.
She thought that if he knew there was a companion, Hailo wouldn’t try to head to the villa recklessly.
Hailo’s brow gradually furrowed.
Fearing that something strange would be revealed if she spoke of deeper circumstances, Adeline quickly changed the subject.
“For now, Hailo, go back. I’ll come to where you are once things are a bit sorted out here.”
“Sorted out? Is sorting things out the issue now? How can I go back, Adel. What happened to all the funds you took when you left, and how did you get so thin like this? Have you been eating properly?”
Hailo strode up to Adeline and grabbed her wrist.
He frowned as he looked at Adeline’s delicate wrist that fit in one hand.
“This won’t do. Let’s go inside.”
It was at that moment when he was about to lead Adeline into the inn.
“Let go of that hand.”
A voice without inflection cut through the silence.
Someone revealed themselves from the alley corner next to the inn.
__________
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.